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Alien 3 Director's Cut review

i'm not a big fan of Alien-series, or movie-series in general. While i think Alien is an excellent movie, it's not that to me because of the story, or the alien, or Ripley, or any other in-movie thing, but because Ridley Scott, and the writers, clearly had something to express with it. Aliens was a plain-ordinary sequel that didn't care about the deeper meanings, but only took the story and then ran with it, relying on storyline and characters to keep interest up. Obviously this worked for Cameron, it was hugely succesfull and even acclaimed, but it doesn't work for me in the least. Also i find the characters too much like cardboard cartoon figures, unlike in Alien (for my sensitivities, Cameron always fails to deliver believable characters, but writes them for the lowest common denominator in the audience, resulting in nothing but feel-good entertainment movies).
David Fincher, "unfortunately", has an artistic vision that has very little to do with the "in-movie" things of Alien-series. Thus he got rid of the crowd-pleasing (cardboard) characters, and continued with the original premise, but without the desire to really contribute to it, but to use it to manifest his own visions. This is unfortunate because Alien-fans seem to be a narrow-minded bunch who didn't want to see a great movie, but rather a continuation of the story.

Instead of being just another Alien-franchise movie, Alien 3 stands on its own. A deep foreboding oppressive apocalyptic atmosphere combined with magnificent photography and excellent performances from the whole cast with well-written characters, much like in the first movie. But this is by no means a rip-off from Scott's version, even if the premise is somewhat similar, the difference lies in the content (=subtext). While Alien was Freudian, the theme here is human condition, much like in Fincher's Se7en and Fight Club. Their small closed community is like a miniature model of any place on Earth, and the convicts are representatives and manifestations of ordinary people (in the end, the movie shows them just as sympathetic as anyone else; there is no substantial difference between a criminal and an ordinary person).

This is one of the true under-rated masterpieces. Though the original theatrical version wasn't as impressive as this one, i find it was still almost on par with Ridley Scott's Alien, and way superior to Aliens. But in my opinion, this Director's Cut version even exceeds Scott's original. And this is certainly on a level that's not usual in sequels.

i'm glad to see someone else liked the film, too...i wrote the review coz i was going through the net unable to find a single positive review about it.

On the DVD, however, i was disappointed at the extras...the people seem just apologetic about the movie, and Fincher (though i understand he at least says he hates it) isn't even in the commentary or documentaries.

I definitely don't think this movie is as good as Alien or Aliens, but I wouldn't understand anybody who says it's no good. It's in fact a really good movie, and I think it does tie in well with the first 2. The only complaint I have is that there are too many characters that are thrown at you, and I personally found the characterization a little difficult to follow.

I love Alien 3, it's tied with original for me, with Aliens being my favorite. The extended cut is a vast improvement, except the chopped up and mish mashed ending. I actually like the effects, I'm sure people wowed about them in 1992, but now you can tell they're not real and they add a surreal quality to the film for me.

Is the Alien 3 Director's Cut part of the Alein Quadrilogy DVD box set

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Yes, but it's not a director's cut per se as David Fincher was not involved with this extended cut. They attempted to make as close as a director's cut as they could based on notes, ect and is referred to as the "Assembly Cut". So this is as close a representation of his vision that we'll probably ever see.